Female Kurdish Combat Unit Joins Fight In Syria (VIDEO)

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When Rokan Abrahim's school in the north of Syria closed because of the fighting, the 21-year-old took matters into her own hands. She joined an all-female Kurdish combat unit formed to protect fellow Kurds in the war-torn country.

As violence rages across Syria, Kurds in the north have formed militant groups to protect civilians in the region. The Woman's Protection Unit to which Abrahim belongs is tied to the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and consists of girls aged 19 to 25. They train for two weeks in a camp in northeast Syria before returning home.

"We are carrying weapons not to kill anybody but to protect ourselves," Abrahim says.

The United Nations reported on Monday that nearly 30,000 Syrians have fled the country's north in the past week, a majority of them Syrian Kurds. According to UNHCR, nearly 3,000 people crossed the border into Iraq on Monday alone, with about 6,000 Syrians entering the country on Sunday and another 20,000 between Thursday and Saturday.